Wemali made sexual advances towards female athlete – Police

KAMPALA. Coach Peter Wemali used foul language while training female athletes last year, Police has admitted.
The coach, who has been in the spotlight since last March when junior female national runners accused him of sexually harassing them, however, didn’t rape or defile as earlier suspected, according to Police findings.
“Our team did thorough investigations and made a report. The report is available; you can get yourself a copy. They found out he used foul language during training sessions,” Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga, told Daily Monitor in a telephone interview on Saturday. “It was established that he also once lured a female runner to his house and attempted to make sexual advances but he failed. There was no proof that he defiled or raped anyone,” Enanga added. Daily Monitor is yet to obtain a copy of the Police report.
In their complaints to team captain Moses Kipsiro during a training camp in Bukwo for the Africa Cross-country Championships last March, the female junior runners claimed that the coach advised them to get pregnant and abort after three months in order to widen their private parts and run better.
Kipsiro demanded that Wemali be suspended and investigated but his request put him at loggerheads with the coach and Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF). By international coaching standards, uttering vulgar words in the presence of athletes, more so those of the opposite sex, is unethical and calls for punitive measures.
In more civilized sports settings, use of profanity warrants bans/fines for the offenders whether athletes or coaches. Many sportsmen and officials in Europe have been punished in such cases. The most recent case in America involved National Football League (NFL) side Jets’ coach, Rex Ryan, who was fined $100,000 (about Shs300m) for using a vulgar word after a game in November last year.
Whereas local athletics governing body, UAF, said Wemali was cleared after investigations last year, Enanga revealed the case came close to prosecution.
“We forwarded the file to the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) but they sent it back to us because there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute the coach. They asked us to do further inquiries,” Enanga said.

Daily Monitor couldn’t independently verify whether DPP indeed received the file by press time.
The saga also cost Wemali his job as head coach of the Police Athletics Camp in Kapchorwa and he is currently on suspension following fresh sexual harassment allegations that saw three female runners testify against him during a stakeholders meeting in Kapchorwa last week.
Sipi Regional Police Commander, James Ruhweza, attended the meeting and promised to have Wemali, who was also accused by Kipsiro of threating his life, arrested.
While a coach making sexual advances on an athlete is in itself unethical and intolerable in some parts of the world, the police report seemed to suggest that there was consensus since the runner took herself to Wemali’s house, Enanga reasoned.
“Wemali is no suspension pending clearance. He is no longer transacting any business on our behalf,” Enanga noted. “We have opened another file following fresh sexual harassment allegations during that meeting in Kapchorwa and soon we should be able to determine whether the girls were defiled after medical examinations, “We will know the truth.”

Death threats source
The source of Kipsiro’s death threats will also soon be known, Enanga promised. “CID headquarters are handling that matter. We got the owner of the phone and we have the simcard. She is a woman who looks too illiterate to compose such a message. We interviewed her and our investigations are nearing conclusion.”
He warned that Kipsiro might also be in trouble in case he is found culpable and blamed the Commonwealth gold medalist for ‘running’ to the media instead of police whenever he gets a problem. “There are several other cases we are investigating,” Enanga revealed. “One of them involves an assault on Wemali by Kipsiro’s brother Sande (Ben) while he was travelling from Bukwo to Kapchorwa. Sande has eluded arrest several times,” he added.
A group of men claiming to be security operatives tried to arrest Sande during the National Cross-country in Jinja two months ago but were repulsed by runners.
The group didn’t have an arrest warrant. “There is also an army deserter, who tried to kill Wemali. We also have the one involving the burning of Wemali’s house.”

THE SMS KIPSIRO RECEIVED

“Continue putting me on press (sic) and tarnish me but remember one day, Chelimo will leave you or die and I will deal with you trust me.”
THE SMS KIPSIRO RECEIVED from 0779 831637

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